Rimol Environmental Centre

The Rimol Environmental Centre in Trondheim is the first of its kind in Norway. Today, technology contributes by recycling up to 80 per cent of the bulk material that would otherwise have ended up in traditional landfills.

About the project

The method and technology has been developed by AF through many years. The decontamination method solves several environmental issues in one process. It reduces the volume of waste and contributes to social gains by increasing the life of the disposal sites. The technology makes it easier to manage the material and reduces the risks of storage.

The Rimol Environmental Centre was nominated to receive the 2017 Innovation Award.

Tiller, Trondheim

A disposal revolution

At the Rimol Environmental Centre, material can be disposed of, decontaminated or both. Materials that previously had to be transported by ship half-way around the Norwegian coast can now be recycled here.

The Rimol Environmental Centre includes a large hall where materials are chemically decontaminated. The material is first fed in to a high-tech decontamination facility where they are mixed with water and flushed under high pressure. The material and water is mechanically separated into seven different fractions; rocks, coarse sand, cable sand, shingle, filling and the residue from the finest particles, “slurry”. Flocculants are added to the water used in the decontamination process. This is done in order to neutralise contamination and remove heavy metals. The leftover slurry after the mechanical decontamination is finally chemically processed in our decontamination hall.